


someone we love, someone we've lost

by marcaskane (noblydonedonnanoble)



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 10:37:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5413652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblydonedonnanoble/pseuds/marcaskane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Winter hit the Sky People full force in November of their first year on the ground.</p>
            </blockquote>





	someone we love, someone we've lost

**Author's Note:**

> So I watched the full-length season 3 trailer and (once I finished screaming over the Kabby kiss) I started laughing at how much even those brief snapshots spit in the face of everything that I develop in this fic. That said, I hope you still enjoy it, and maybe appreciate that it's nowhere near as full of drama as season 3 will no doubt be.

                Winter hit the Sky People full force in November of their first year on the ground.

                Luckily, they had had a good amount of time to prepare—for months, a small team had been retrieving goods from Mount Weather, creating a stockpile of clothes, medical supplies, and food that far surpassed the amount of resources they had had on the Ark.

                In addition, every able-bodied person had been recruited to help construct sturdier, insulated shelters that could weather potential winter storms. Council members and the guard officers moved into them first, then gradually, other adults with no children or elderly to take care of received one as well. They were tiny – little more than huts – but it opened up space in the Ark, hopefully easing tensions that could have built up from having so many people confined to that small space once again.

                Once the first snow came, there was little for them to do. Temperatures hovered only barely below freezing for the entirety of November, but even so, they discouraged people from venturing outside and order them not to go off on their own. The snow had completely altered the landscape—a few gusts of wind would be enough to cover up any tracks a person had made, and without the normally familiar landmarks to guide them back to the Ark, they could easily get lost.

                That said, by the middle of December, Abby Griffin was feeling… restless. Clarke had still not returned to the camp, and though she believed everyone’s countless reminders that Clarke was _fine_ , Abby also knew that the weather was a pretty strong indication that Clarke wouldn’t be coming home for at least few months. Not until the snow had cleared.

                Luckily, she had a fair number of distractions. She was still the chancellor, after all, and the Council was trying to determine what their plan of action should be once winter had passed. They were reluctant to remain so close to the Grounders who had betrayed them, but they also had little knowledge of the people who lived beyond the area immediately surrounding Mount Weather.

                They hardly wanted to encroach on the wrong land and accidentally incite a war with yet another group of people.

                “This is why Clarke needs to come home,” she told Marcus one day, after the rest of the Council had dispersed. “Maybe while travelling, she’s come across some unoccupied land where we wouldn’t be in anyone’s way…”

                “And then you would know for certain that she’s safe,” he pointed out. Gently. Just to make sure that she knew he was aware of her real concern, but that he wasn’t faulting her for it.

                She didn’t contradict him. She just sat at the table, silently, blinking down at her hands.

                Marcus seemed ready to get up to leave, but he changed his mind at the last moment, leaning forward on his elbows and asking, “Did your parents ever talk to you about Christmas?”

                Abby looked up at him curiously. “No, not really. After we learned about Earth holidays in school I mentioned it to them, but they didn’t celebrate it as children, so they couldn’t tell me much that the teacher hadn’t already said.”

                “My mom always…” He faltered, swallowing sharply and casting his gaze down. “She always brought it up this time of year. They’d stopped giving gifts by the time she was born, but her parents still made a big deal out of it while she was growing up.”

                “How? I always thought the gifts were the whole point.”

                “She said it wasn’t always that way. It used to be about getting together with the ones you loved and celebrating the good things that happened that year.”

                Abby raised her eyebrows at him. “Good things have been a bit few and far between this year, Marcus.”

                “But look at how far we’ve come. This time last year we were desperately trying to figure out how to stay alive in space while killing as few of our people as possible. For the first time in my life, our focus is not solely on survival. I’d say that’s something worth celebrating.”

                She gave him a half-hearted smile. Marcus waited to see whether she wanted to respond at all, but when she didn’t say anything, he asked, “Would you come on a walk with me?”

                “What?”

                “It shouldn’t take very long. I just want to show you something.”

                 Abby considered it for just a second. “Alright.”

                Their trek was slow. Marcus had underestimated how much the build-up of snow would affect their ability to walk over the already uneven ground. At one point, he stumbled, and he used it as an excuse to grab hold of her hand. Her lips curved into a small smile and she squeezed his hand as she helped to steady him.

                “Are you sure you know where you’re taking me?” Abby asked after a good 20 minutes of walking.

                “We’re almost there,” he grumbled.

                She was staring down, watching her step, so she laughed into her scarf and the sound was muffled to his ears. “Okay.”

                He wasn’t wrong, though. Less than five minutes later, they reached a clearing and Marcus stopped.

                “We came all this way for an empty patch of forest?” He could hear in her voice that she was trying not to sound ungrateful, but confusion and slight annoyance was peeking through in her tone.

                Marcus just gestured at the ground in front of them.

                Abby looked down and let out a low breath. “Is this the Eden Tree?”

                “Yes.”

                “I didn’t think it survived the landing. Did you come out here all by yourself to plant it?”

                He nodded. “I did. My intention wasn’t to keep it a secret, really, but then I just… well. This sort of became the place I come when I need to remind myself of the progress our people have made.”

                “Oh, I see where this is going,” Abby said with a slight smirk. She didn’t sound particularly annoyed anymore, though.

                “Hear me out!” Marcus exclaimed with a chuckle. “For our people, this was a symbol for the journey back to Earth that we were becoming increasingly certain we would never be able to make. Sending the hundred to earth was a shot in the dark but somehow it led us… here.” He gestured around them.

                “I know you’re right,” she murmured. “But it just… it doesn’t make me feel any better about everyone that we’ve lost along the way.”

                “Of course not. Why should it? My mom should be here, Jake should be here, and hundreds of other people besides. There’s no way to justify the fact that they’re not, especially when I remember that I’m mostly responsible…”

                She scoffed. “Marcus, don’t be ridiculous, we’ve talked about this. So many of us played a role in everything that’s happened.”

                “That doesn’t make me feel any better,” he retorted.

                Abby actually chuckled, meeting his gaze and saying, “Touché.”

                Marcus’s lips quirked up slightly. “So do you want to know what helps me? When I begin thinking this way?”

                She blinked up at him, waiting.

                “I come out here and I scream.”

                “You scream,” Abby echoed.

                “Until I feel better. Or until I go hoarse, whichever comes first.”

                Abby immediately thought back over the past few months to all of the times she’d encountered Marcus after he’d disappeared for hours. All the times his throat had sounded sore and he’d refused to let her check it out because he was _fine Abby, honestly_.

                “As your physician, I should probably discourage that,” she said after a moment.

                “Care to try it anyway?” When Abby didn’t answer immediately, Marcus released his grip on her hand and slung his arm over her shoulder. “I’ll do it with you if you want.”

                She bit her lip, glancing down at the Eden Tree again. “On the count of three?”

                They tilted their faces to the sky and counted to three and together, they screamed. Marcus fell silent first but he stayed perfectly still, waiting for Abby to tire herself out.

                But then she surprised him. The moment she stopped, she buried her face in her hands and turned her full body in toward him, pressing against his chest.

                Marcus reacted instinctively, wrapping his arms around her. He could hear her sniffling slightly. He had no clue how long they stood there before, “I just want Clarke to come home.”

                “She will when it’s safe,” he murmured. “You know she just doesn’t want to put you in any danger.”

                Abby just nodded, still not moving from his arms.

                When she finally stepped back, her face was flushed and her eyes glassy. “Thank you for bringing me here, Marcus. I feel… lighter than I have in a long time.”

                “I’m glad to hear it. Do you think you’re ready to go back to Camp Jaha?”

                “Yes.”

                He made to turn around, but then Abby said, “Wait, Marcus, one more thing.”

                In response, he was preparing to say something, along the lines of, “What?” or “Yes?” But before he could, she was standing up on the tips of her toes and pressing a soft kiss to his slightly open mouth.

                Their noses were pressed together and their lips were chapped and her aim was slightly off-center but both of them began to smile immediately.

                “I’ve been trying to figure out a good time to do that,” Marcus blurted as soon as Abby pulled away.

                She grinned. “I noticed. I just figured I’d finally put you out of your misery.”

                Marcus looked down at the ground shyly. "Can we have a drink together when we get back to camp, then?"

                “I like the sound of that.” 

                They both looked to the Eden Tree one more time, then left the clearing hand in hand. 


End file.
